Murray withdraws from Basel

Andy Murray has pulled out of the Swiss Indoors Basel tournament citing a back injury.

This is the second year running that the British number one has been forced to withdraw from Basel due to an untimely injury. The Scot originally signed up last Autumn to amend for last year's mishap (where Murray asked for a Wild Card before withdrawing due to a gluteal injury), but unfortunately he has had to pull out again due to a back problem that has plagued him all year.

Murray will now be hoping he is fit for the Paris Masters next week where he is defending quarter-final points, although his eye will most likely be on the World Tour Finals in London the week after.

I'm struggling with this to be honest, i've not seen any statement from Andy himself or from anyone nside his inner circle, i cannot find any mention of it on the web, where is this news coming from? and if true why was there such a long wait for him to pull out? as much as i hate to say this, this will reflect very badly on him.

I wish he'd pulled out earlier too but it's quite possible that the organisers encouraged him not to in the hope he might be fit enough to play. It would have spoiled their pre-tourno publicity around having the 3 Olympic medallists had Andy pulled out a week ago. My eeyore side fears that boogers could be right - ie he can say goodbye to Paris and more importantly WTF; my Pollyanna side says perhaps the back is just niggling and he's being sensible not pushing it for 3 weeks in a row. I would love my Pollyanna side to be right naturally.

I'm struggling with this to be honest, i've not seen any statement from Andy himself or from anyone nside his inner circle, i cannot find any mention of it on the web, where is this news coming from? and if true why was there such a long wait for him to pull out? as much as i hate to say this, this will reflect very badly on him.

Gnome, he must have wanted to wait if he could see if he could recover and play Basel. He would have also loved to play and would be dissapointed to have pulled out.I would have also loved an earlier notice but I am happy that he is taking the right move...

Andy Murray has pulled out of Swiss Indoors Basel tournament citing a back injury.

This is the second year running that the British number one has been forced to withdraw from Basel due to an untimely injury. The Scot originally signed up last fall to amend for last year's mishap (where Murray asked for a Wild Card before withdrawing due to a gluteal injury), but unfortunately he has had to pull out again.

Murray will now be hoping he is fit for the Paris Masters next week where he is defending quarter-final points, although his eye will most likely be on the World Tour Finals in London the week after.

This precautionary back problem withdrawal may have started during Shanghai tournament. Everybody assumed that Andy's sometime lack lustre performance was owing to a virus.

Perhaps it really was his back that was troubling him after all he a few times against Djokovic he appeared to grab his back.

If the problem is his back then like Boogers he is going to need more than 1 week to fully recover. The Paris Masters and WTF would most definitely be at risk for Andy

Probably a combination of both. He was certainly coughing quite a bit in the early interviews and said he'd had a sore throat and swollen glands at Tokyo (which might have affected some of his play there too) and that the infection had spread to his chest.

I think he's being precautionary and saving himself for the WTF. He's said often enough that the WTF is his priority, so therein could lie the clue, although going into the WTF a bit rusty doesn't sound a good idea, but then neither does possibly getting to the final in Paris and then playing two days later in London. Stupid scheduling really.

I'm struggling with this to be honest, i've not seen any statement from Andy himself or from anyone nside his inner circle, i cannot find any mention of it on the web, where is this news coming from? and if true why was there such a long wait for him to pull out? as much as i hate to say this, this will reflect very badly on him.

I agree, but not so much the wait as the lack of any kind of statement from Andy himself. It almost sounds like he's got something to hide, which is such a shame given the sympathetic reaction to his Wimbledon loss and the huge support and acclaim he got for the Olympics and the USO. But this isn't the first time Andy has clammed up, something which I think is disrespectful to his fans who I feel deserve to be kept in the picture. He doesn't need to give out every detail, but a short statement would be much appreciated. I'm afraid I just don't get him at times, and it does make me a bit angry because he's only drawing more attention to himself by allowing rumours and speculation to run rife.